Diffuser for terrestrial or aviation gas turbine

Abstract

A diffuser for a gas turbine engine, said diffuser being disposed between a last stage of a turbine and an exhaust casing, and comprising an outer annular wall and an inner annular wall together defining an annular passage for fluid that diverges in the flow direction of said fluid, at least one of the annular walls including a plurality of orifices leading from said annular passage to at least one collecting box leading to means for exhausting a fraction of said fluid so as to reduce the flow speed of said fluid in said annular passage.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to the general field of diffusers for gas turbine engines of terrestrial or aviation type. It relates more particularly to diffusers placed between the turbine and the exhaust casing of a gas turbine engine.[0002] The function of terrestrial or aviation gas turbines is to deliver power that is sufficient to drive either an alternator (terrestrial turbines) or a compressor (aviation turbines). To do this, a gas turbine takes a fraction of the energy of the hot compressed gases coming from the combustion chamber of the turbine engine and transforms it into mechanical energy. A turbine generally comprises a plurality of stages, each stage comprising a stator nozzle and a moving wheel placed after the nozzle for accelerating the flow of gas. The gas coming from the last stage of the turbine then feeds an exhaust casing.[0003] The exhaust casing placed immediately downstream from the turbine is constituted by a diffuser and by casing arms which serve ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] The present invention thus seeks to mitigate such drawbacks by proposing a gas turbine diffuser in which pressure losses are significantly reduced.

[0006] To this end, the invention provides a diffuser for a gas turbine engine, said diffuser being disposed between a last stage of a turbine and an exhaust casing, and comprising an outer annular wall and an inner annular wall together defining an annular passage for fluid that diverges in the flow direction of said fluid, wherein at least one of the annular walls includes a plurality of orifices leading from said annular passage to at least one collecting box leading to means for exhausting a fraction of said fluid so as to reduce the flow speed of said fluid in said annular passage.

[0007] As a result, the orifices made through at least one of the annular walls of the diffuser act via the collecting box to exhaust a fraction of the fluid passing through the annular passage, thus enabling the fluid flow speed in the annular passage to be reduced, and thus enabling pressure losses to be minimized. Any risk of boundary layers thickening on the walls of the diffuser and then separating is also eliminated. The collecting box(es) are also connected to at least one fluid exhaust channel. Advantageously, the diffuser further comprises suction means for controlling and monitoring a determined rate of flow for the fluid that is to be exhausted.

Problems solved by technology

An exhaust casing suffers from pressure losses which are typically proportional to the square of the speed of the gas at the leading edge of the casing arms.

The slope of the walls constituting the diffuser must not exceed a certain value since otherwise there is a risk of boundary layers on said walls thickening.

Thick boundary layers lead to separation, which harms the efficiency of the diffuser.

Furthermore, optimizing the turbine in terms of cost, mass, and performance generally leads to high loads per stage, giving rise to ever-increasing speed of the gas at the outlet from the last stage of the turbine.

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